Ghost Stalker (22 page)

Her voice was hushed as she stared out at the army of possessed humans. “Oh, my God.”

Nicholas judged the half dozen horse wranglers to be the biggest threat. They looked young and strong. The cowboys stood side by side with paunchy tourists who wore an odd assortment of sneakers, ball caps and new denim. One woman stood in a bikini and had bare feet, as if she’d just been summoned from the pool. Suntan lotion made her bare legs gleam in the sun.

They crept relentlessly, steadily forward, tightening the circle.

“We can’t kill them,” said Jessie. “It’s my duty to preserve human life.”

“We’ll make a run for it. Try to reach the woods,” said Nicholas.

He could smell Jessie’s panic.

“There are so many.”

He clasped her hand. “Get ready.”

He didn’t think they’d make it, but he would not retreat into the house. Better to fight on open ground than be trapped in the cabin.

The bellowing made him glance away from his foe for just an instant. Beside him, Tuff had taken his animal form. The horde before him made no indication that they heard the warning cry of the bull buffalo before it charged. The beast tossed its massive head as it plowed forward, knocking people aside like bowling pins. The bull cleared a furrow through the enemy; then it turned around, pawing the ground.

Nick needed no further invitation. He grabbed Jessie, tossed her over his shoulder and ran down the steps. Then he threw her up on the buffalo’s back.

“Hold on,” he shouted, then turned to the bull. “She’s on, Tuff. Go! Go!”

The buffalo lowered its head and charged. Several of the humans managed to clutch at Jessie’s legs, but Nick ran beside the bull, throwing off the humans who grabbed and tore at her. He retained the speed of his wolf self in human form and easily kept up with the buffalo. He heard Jessie’s mother scream and turned to see George swinging his fist as the enemy overwhelmed them.

He turned back, throwing off the men and women that attacked her parents.

Behind him, Tuff bellowed. Nick saw him slow under the sheer number of people crowding, screaming, clawing. As Tuff knocked them away, more poured from the cabins, replacing the fallen. Cooks with knives appeared and valets, women who worked in the spa and at the front desk, their cheery country-style uniforms now a mocking aberration.

Nick saw there were too many, that they would lose. The humans who were seriously injured or unconscious lay useless as old snake skins as more unseen ghosts took possession of healthy hosts to manipulate.

The buffalo came to a standstill. Nick ran to Jessie, dragging her from Tuff’s back. He curled about her, protecting her from the shower of blows with his body. Tuff stamped and circled, swinging his great horned head to drive back those he could.

Above them, Bess flapped and cried, helpless to defend her friends.

The winds increased to a roaring gale that knocked the people flat. Only Tuff retained his footing as the tornado touched down beyond the corral, scattering the horses.

The Thunderbirds had arrived, carrying help. Nick thought of all the Inanoka he had met and wondered who had responded to his urgent call.

The answer sent a shiver of dread down his body, for there in the clearing stood the great grizzly bear. Nick recognized him instantly.

Sebastian, the Healer, his best friend and the husband of the last Seer of Souls, had come.

But his wife?
Please,
thought Nicholas,
don’t let her be here.

He strained his neck to see. The winds lifted, and Sebastian roared and then fell to all fours, charging forward. And then he saw Michaela, running swiftly after her husband, her long braid bobbing behind her. She was slim and sleek again. How long ago had she delivered her twins?

The ghost army turned from him in unison, responding to some signal he could not hear. En masse, they charged the bear and the Seer, breaking through the wooden fence in the paddock.

Nicholas’s heart sank. All his efforts to protect the last Seer of Souls had come to nothing. She had followed her husband, coming to rescue his miserable hide.

They would be killed.

And it would be his fault.

Nick saw the horses in the paddock now charging Sebastian. He called a warning.

Sebastian reared to attack the horses. Hooves flashed as the bear swung his massive arm. Beside him, his wife, Michaela, gripped a medicine wheel and chanted. The horses leaped back, trembled and then fell to their sides, kicking wildly.

“Go back,” shouted Nick. “Call the winds.”

They could not hear him, for they continued toward the army of howling ghosts. Behind them the horses rolled suddenly to their feet, kicking and bucking as they made their mad escape from the bear.

Sebastian moved to stand before his wife. He was mighty and brave. But Nick knew that even he could not win against such numbers.

Nick glanced at Jessie. She was flushed and shaken, but uninjured.

“Hurry,” she urged. “Help them.”

Nick ran toward his friends, pushing and shoving this mass of manipulated humanity as he passed. How many would he kill before they killed him?

Michaela raised her face to the wispy white clouds, holding the medicine wheel up to the sunshine. Her chanted song rose clear and true above the moan of the approaching horde. In unison the people halted, clamping their hands to their ears as if her lovely prayer was some heinous screeching. They dropped to their knees, still clutching their heads, and together collapsed on the ground.

Nick examined the fallen. They all lay in the same
direction, heads pointed north, lying motionless, as felled wheat.

He crouched down to stare at a woman. Her eyes were open but had rolled back in her head, making them a disconcerting white. Her muscles were rigid, as if some invisible current ran through her body.

Jessie ran to him, wrapping an arm about his waist. “What’s happening?”

Nick glanced this way and that. He, Jessie, Michaela, Sebastian, Bess and Tuff, now in human form, and Jessie’s parents were the only ones still standing.

“She did something to them,” said Tuff, gazing with caution at Michaela. “What is her power?”

Nick smiled at Michaela, who lowered her wheel as he spoke to Tuff. “This is Michaela, the last Seer of Souls.”

She shook her head, beaming a great smile. “Last no longer.”

Nick’s eyes widened as he remembered. Her infants were now in this world. Were they Seers, as well? It explained Nagi’s impatience to kill her.

Sebastian transformed to human form and strode forward. He was a great mountain of a man with more height and brawn than Nick. He clasped Nick’s forearm, using it to drag him forward for a hug so tight several of his ribs popped.

“Easy, bear, you’ll crush the life out of me.”

“I’m so glad to see you safe,” said Sebastian, now thumping Nick on his shoulders in a steady rain of affectionate blows. “I got your distress call.”

Nick grabbed his hands to still them. “I didn’t want you to come.”

“I know, but Michaela has learned a few tricks since you’ve seen her. Her father’s been teaching her. She can send them for judgment now.”

Sebastian seemed to only just notice Jessie. He released Nick, who tried not to sag with relief.

“So, this is the little Spirit Child who saved your life. We have heard of you.” Sebastian grabbed Jessie about the waist and spun her in a circle. “Thank you.”

Michaela reached her husband. “Put her down now. You’re frightening her.”

He did, his face reddening as he lowered her back to the ground. “Was I?” He leaned toward Jessie for confirmation.

“Well, maybe a little.” She motioned toward the slim native man beside her. “This is Tuff. He fixed Nick’s injuries.”

Sebastian bowed to the buffalo. “Thank you, brother, for your sacrifice.”

Tuff returned the bow. “It is my duty.”

Michaela came forward and kissed Nick. “We’re so happy you are all right.”

It was then that the moaning began. All around the injured humans began to cry out in pain and confusion. The ground, once as still as a graveyard, now undulated with writhing humanity.

Nick shook his head, suddenly at a loss. “How could there be so many?”

Michaela answered. “Nagi has not been collecting the evil souls who refuse to walk the Spirit Road upon
their death. Or, rather, he has been collecting them, but instead of taking them to his circle, he has recruited for his earthbound army.”

“Great Spirit save us,” whispered Jessie.

The wounded continued to call for help, while the uninjured sat up, shaking their heads in bewilderment.

Tuff surveyed the scene. “There are many here in need of help.”

Sebastian rested a hand on him. “We can manage it together.”

Jessie gaped at the fallen army. “But what about our oath to keep our world secret? They’ve already seen too much.”

Her father interrupted. “I can help with that.”

They turned to see Jessie’s parents hurrying forward. Nick recalled that her father had the gift of suggestion. But to influence so many, was it even possible?

Jessie swayed and Nick caught her.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ve been out of my body so long, I’m just…”

“Exhausted,” finished her mother, slipping her arm about Jessie’s waist. “That’s why we set limits. It’s bad for the body to be alone so long.”

Nick retained his hold on Jessie’s shoulders, ready to engage in a tug-of-war with her mother.

Mrs. Healy fixed her cold stare on him. “I know how to care for her. Do you?”

Uncertainty stirred in him and he looked to Jessie.

“It’s all right. I’ll just be in the lodge, waiting for you,” she said.

“I’ll come along.”

“You have to protect the Seer. Make sure she and Sebastian get away safely.”

Nick knew she was right and let his grip relax, but only enough to capture her hand. He trusted her, but he did not trust her parents.

“Please,” whispered Jessie, swaying.

The exhaustion in her face convinced him. He released her. “I’ll be quick.”

She nodded wearily as her mother guided her away.

Her father paused in the center of the men and women, now rising from the grassy lawn.

“Folks, I think you’ll all want to gather around me now. You’ll want to hear this.”

They did. Everyone who could stand now followed this pied piper as he led them toward the lodge. It made separating the injured an easy matter.

“We’re all going into the lodge for a meeting and we’ll fill you in on this crazy weather. Boy, I’ll bet you all feel lucky to have safely come through it. I know you admire the way the staff protected you from injury. Quick thinking on their part to get you out of those buildings.”

Nick watched in wonder as the men and women nodded their heads in agreement with his version of events.

“They won’t remember the possession,” said Michaela. “That will just be a blank spot. It’s good to have someone fill in the pieces, even if they aren’t the actual ones that happened. I take it he’s a Peacemaker.”

Nick nodded. “So he said.”

He turned to the injured, assisting Sebastian and Tuff as they assessed the damage from the battle. Together the bear and buffalo began the process of restoring the injured.

Michaela watched over her husband and scanned the area like a soldier on patrol.

Nicholas came to stand beside her, guarding her as his friend did his work.

“Is it really safe for you here?”

Bess landed on a fence post, listening to them with her bright eyes twinkling.

“I’ve sent all the ghosts away,” Bess said.

Tension remained in Michaela’s shoulders and her attention continued to wander over the open area.

Bess flapped her wings. “But they will all be arriving in the Circle of Ghosts together. These souls will surely draw Nagi’s notice.”

Michaela nodded. “It’s a risk.”

Bess’s neck cowl lifted as a measure of her unease.

“You can’t be here,” said Nicholas.

“But here I stay, until my husband has finished his work.”

Nick glanced at Sebastian. “It is not his duty to protect men.”

“But it is mine,” she answered. “And I am his and so it falls to him, as well.”

Bess piped up. “The buffalo can treat them.”

Michaela shook her head in resignation. “So many are injured and so seriously, the effort would kill him. Buffalos are strong, but no living creature could endure such pain.”

Nicholas pressed his lips together. He would trade all these lives for hers. She was necessary, vital to their fight against Nagi.

She lay a hand on his arm for just a moment. “He will be quick,” she assured.

Nick glanced toward the lodge, wondering if Jessie was all right without him.

Michaela’s voice intruded into his thoughts. “And then you can return to her.”

He flushed and nodded.

The Seer gave him an assessing look. “Nicholas, this Dream Walker saved your life and defies her parents for you.”

“Yes,” he said, reluctant as always to reveal his feelings.

She waited until it was clear he would say nothing further and then she smiled. “You’re worse than Sebastian. How do you feel about her?”

He met Michaela’s gaze, seeing nothing but her sweet serenity and compassion.

“I love her,” he admitted. “She is my soul mate.”

Michaela clapped her hands together and then threw her arms about Nick. “Oh, I’m so happy for you both.”

Nick dragged Michaela’s hands from about his neck and returned his attention to scanning for potential threats, searching for ghosts that he knew he could not see. But if one possessed being came near, he could smell it.

“I can’t wait to tell Sebastian. He’ll be over the moon.”

Nick thought his friend would have a field day and
already dreaded the comments he felt sure would come his way. He’d been a bachelor for nearly a century and never had a steady relationship in all that time.

He stayed by his friend’s wife as Sebastian worked. Tuff grew weak from his efforts but continued on without complaint. Nick had never seen so stalwart a Skinwalker. His sacrifice humbled him again. Tuff gave this gift to strangers, selflessly.